More

Dallas ISD may ask voters for $2.5 billion for its aging schools

The district could issue $2.5 billion in bonds without raising its current interest and sinking tax rate of $0.24, officials said.

Students hold up a a check for additional bond funds to improve Eladio R. Martinez Learning Center while Scott Layne (far left), DISD's deputy superintendent of operations, helps make the announcement alongside board member Miguel Solis at the school in Dallas on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018.

With nearly a billion dollars in bonds yet to be sold from its last bond election, Dallas ISD is setting the stage to ask voters for billions more for its aging schools.

Officials prepped DISD’s board of trustees during this month’s briefing, setting out an 18-month timeline that could call for a bond election at the next U.S. presidential election: Nov. 3, 2020.

While details have yet to be hashed out, deputy superintendent for operations Scott Layne and chief financial officer Dwayne Thompson laid out a hypothetical of what that bond might look like: $2.5 billion, with the first bond sale coming in August 2022.

The district could manage that figure — which, if approved by voters, would be the largest bond in DISD history — without raising the interest and sinking tax rate over the current $0.24 rate, Thompson said.

Voters overwhelmingly approved a $1.6 billion bond for construction needs in 2015 — also without changing the tax rate.

A report commissioned by DISD at that time said that the 2015 bond would go only halfway to addressing the district’s facility needs by 2020.

The average age of DISD’s 200-plus schools is 52 years; eight years more than the national average.

New bond funding “would take care of the district over the next five to seven years,” Layne said, addressing $1.5 billion in needed renovations for existing campuses and providing over $500 million for the construction of 16 new schools.

“We’ll probably have to make some hard decisions down the road on what can be included,” Layne said.

Over the past few years, the district has tried to be more methodical on how it addresses construction needs. But that effort hasn’t come without criticism.

mobile-only dfpPosition1

In the fall, DISD finalized its first-ever long-range master plan, gathering data on facilities, building capacity, technology assessments and instructional needs over a 15-month process.

DISD used that data to create a strategic facilities plan, trying to find a balance between its aging schools and declining school enrollment. But the initial draft — which called for closing 22 campuses and demolishing 47 schools — drew heavy opposition.

School officials dramatically scaled back that plan a few months later, reducing the number of closures to two schools: alternative campus Nolan Estes Plaza and the Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship Academy at James W. Fannin.

Layne said the district is “way ahead of the curve” for the upcoming bond because of the development of the long-range plan.

“We don’t have to go out and do full-blown assessments of all of our buildings,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of the data already in place, which is good.”

At the upcoming June 27 board meeting, trustees will vote on establishing a bond steering committee. Members of that group will be appointed by both the superintendent and the board and will include representatives from the city of Dallas, Dallas County, the Dallas Regional Chamber and the Dallas County Community College District.

Trustees seemed receptive to the initial plan.

Dan Micciche, who represents schools in northeast Dallas and White Rock Lake, said he has wanted another bond to be brought to voters “for some time now.”

“We’ve got all these old buildings, and we’ve been able to renovate some and replace some, but we’re still in a situation where we’ve got so many inadequate facilities,” Micciche said.

mobile-only dfpPosition2

While he would support more funding for facilities, Micciche said he wanted the district to “take a hard look” at improving both the quality and cost of the district’s projects.

Too often, Micciche said, the work completed for the district has been shoddy.

Trustee Miguel Solis said he had questions about how the district’s fledgling racial equity process would be reflected in the bond’s priorities. Solis asked Layne to commit to examine federal redlining maps and data on the socioeconomic conditions around schools, and have those indicators be reflected in the type of work done throughout the district.

“I really want to support this bond, [but] it’s going to be really hard without making sure there’s a component of racial equity that’s not just about ‘same physical opportunities, same technology standards’ across everything,” Solis said. “Because you can’t define equity as equality.”

Joyce Foreman, a staunch opponent to the 2015 bond, offered criticism on how on DISD administration had provided data on the district’s indebtedness, asking that district staff include principal and interest payments on its charts and graphs.

The district’s total debt service — both principal and interest — is currently $5.3 billion. A $2.5 billion bond, without a tax increase, would raise the district’s total indebtedness to $9.4 billion.

DISD has yet to issue $950 million of bonds from the 2015 election.

In 2018, the district started a commercial paper program — which has allowed the district short-term financing to start projects before the issuance of bonds. DISD will sell $300 million of bonds during the 2019-20 fiscal year to start on the final phase of construction for the remaining projects in the 2015 bond program.

When voters approved the 2015 bond, DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said at the time that the district would ideally like to have a bond program every five years to keep up with its needs.

mobile-only dfpPosition3

During the board briefing, Hinojosa thanked a representative of the Dallas Regional Chamber — Lanet Greenhaw, the organization’s vice president of education and workforce — for helping DISD reserve its place on the November 2020 ballot. In previous tax efforts, DISD administration aimed to have its items appear on the ballot during elections with large turnout.